The Redemption of Trent Easton II Remastered
by Smileyfax
Summary: Trent Easton is now partnered with Joanna Dark in the Carrington Institute. However, they both stumble unto a plot more insiduous than the conspiracy to activate the Cetan megaweapon.
1. Chapter One

2026.  
  
A Maian saucer is streaking past the orbit of Mars. Inside, the two CI agents clad in spacesuits went over Carrington's briefing.  
  
"The Microsoft Corporation has contacted the Institute with a problem of an extraterrestrial nature. One of their AstroCartography Satellite was launched to the asteriod belt for the purpose of scouting out probable asteroids for colonization or mining purposes. It was also equipped with the standard radio telescope. They picked up transmissions which, after some analysis, indicate that the Skedar may have an outpost on an asteroid out there. We shortly lost contact with the satellite. The Maians have given us permission to use one of their saucers to more closely examine the asteroid in question - Ceres, one of the biggest ones out there. Good luck, Agents Dark and Easton."  
  
The agents piloted the craft to a tiny asteroid near their objective - only about 200 feet wide. They left the craft and prepared to use their second generaton MMUs, much smaller than the ones used with the old shuttle missions and with more 'oomph'. They held down the boosters for three seconds, aimed toward the asteroid. They were going 60 MPH.   
  
About a hundred feet off the surface of the asteroid, they hit the emergency brake button on their packs. Then, they carefully maneuvered to the asteroid's surface. "I've got 78% fuel. You, Trent?" asked the first pressure suit.  
  
"Eh, I've got 60%."  
  
"That's what you get for not paying attention in training."  
  
Trent waved Joanna off. They both tuned their radios to receive transmissions from any frequency. Immediately their radios filled with the familiar growls and hisses of the Skedar race. Joanna sent a transmission on a secure frequency. "Daniel, this is a freaking Skedar nest. Please advise."  
  
After the delay of several minutes, Daniel's message came back. "It's a good thing we arranged for that package, Jo, because you're going to need it."  
  
Joanna fingered the bundle on her side. It would have weighed about fifty pounds on Earth. Trent had questioned why they should even bring it, in case it killed them on the way. "We're taking a Maian saucer. That'll get us there in twelve hours. It wouldn't affect us even if it was cracked wide open in that amount of the time."  
  
Joanna turned to Trent. "We still have to get this near the core of the asteroid, else it'll just be a fancy show. Plus, we've got to gather intelligence on why the Skedar are even here."  
  
Trent nodded. "Give me the package then, Jo. You've got more experience at combat against these bastards than I do, and you've had more experience in zero-g."  
  
Jo nodded and handed off the package. "How's oxygen, by the way?"  
  
"54%"  
  
"Same here."  
  
Trent pulled himself along the surface of the asteroid while examining the map the satellite had sent. A really big cave was near the edge of the known asteroid. Trent didn't want to waste his fuel. He pulled himself along faster.  
  
~~~  
  
Joanna was prepared for vacuum combat. Her pressure suit had a double layer of Kevlar as well as the special fabric that kept air in. She also had a triple laser mounted on her wrist. It was twice as powerful as a Falcon bullet.  
  
She used her Data Uplink to trace the source of the transmissions. It was a camouflage obelisk, like the ones she had helped destroy on the holy Skedar planet. This one matched the hue of the nearby landscape, though. Joanna took a small chunk of plastique from her belt and affixed it to the obelisk. She then checked her map for any irregularities. A perfectly square 5 by 5 plate of iron was nearby. Joanna pulled herself towards it, wanting to conserve fuel herself. The plate was quite clearly a hatch. It easily lifted up. Inside was an outer airlock door. Joanna glided into the airlock. She sealed the outer door and enacted the cycling process. When it was almost over, she hit the detonator for the plastique. Much of the Skedar noise traffic disappeared instantly, but what remained seemed to sound extremely agitated.  
  
Immediately inside was a floor plan of the whole base pasted on the wall. "Small," Joanna commented. She noticed that the area was pressurized. She removed her helmet, which conveniently hung off the back. She took a snapshot of the floor plan with the minicam stored in her belt. The snapshot began its several minute journey to Earth. She noted a data center, a barracks, and a hangar.  
  
Data center first. She jogged through the corridors for a few minutes, encountering no resistance. The data center had about four mainframes. Joanna knew that it would take about an hour to download all the information, and she didn't have that much time. She jammed the Uplink into the terminal and blew it a kiss goodbye. She heard a roar behind her. Swirling, she saw a Skedar fire three shots at her from a Mauler. Her arm was up instantly, and after two quick blasts from the laser, the creature was history. She looked down. Damn! Her suit was breached. "Oh shit." An idea - very farfetched - struck her.  
  
~~~  
  
Trent finally reached the large cave. He pulled himself in and shoved himself to the bottom of the cave. He took the package off of his side and opened it. Inside was a 50 kiloton atomic bomb. He tucked it into a crevasse and flicked the On switch. The bomb had a ten minute timer. "That was damn easy," he said. He looked up. On the ceiling was a flat concrete surface and several Skedar ships. "Hell, I'm in a hangar."  
  
Trent pushed himself to - well, the floor now. He had brought his trademark customized Magnum, tethered to his waist so it wouldn't float off. He also had some easy reload cartridges in his belt. He brought his Magnum to bear now. He twisted his way through the various Skedar craft. He saw one shuttle was being worked on by three Skedar in pressure suits. Their suits looked rather funny, as they conformed to the peculiar shape of the Skedar biomechanical suit. Trent launched himself toward the nearby airlock. One Skedar turned and noticed him. Trent lifted his gun and fired. In the airless environment, there was no bang, but Trent flew back to the wall from the recoil. The Skedar quickly expired from the hole in its suit. Trent righted himself and launched toward the airlock again. The second Skedar noticed the first was dead and turned toward Trent. It gestured towards the last remaining Skedar, and they both glided toward Trent, tools at the ready. Trent waited…waited…waited…FIRED! The bullet went through both creatures and their pressure suits. Trent shoved himself into the airlock at last. 


	2. Chapter Two

The Skedar - a dozen of them - were asleep in the bunker. Joanna quietly slipped into the room. She padded towards the closest locker. Gingerly, she released the catch. It squealed. She winced and looked around. The nearest Skedar moved a little, but nothing else. Joanna opened the locker all the way. Inside was an oversized pressure suit, created for a Skedar. Joanna took it out and quickly padded out of the room. On the other side of the door, she used her laser on the controls, shorting them. "Trapped, bastards."  
  
She turned around and came face-to-face with a pissed Skedar warrior. She was frozen as it raised its claw. A gunshot snapped her out of it. The Skedar fell over. "I didn't need saving," Joanna said, turning to Trent. "Right. I'm sure you tell that to all the boys." Joanna flipped him off as he did her earlier. She hurriedly removed the damaged pressure suit and efforted to wear the clumsy Skedar pressure suit. "It's loose, but it should work," said Joanna. "Did you set up the package?" Trent nodded. "We've got five minutes now." "OK, let's get the hell out of here."  
  
~~~  
  
They entered the hangar. Joanna looked up and saw the numbers from the bomb ticking down. "Three thirty!" she shouted. "Hold on to me, Jo!" Trent responded. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. He activated his MMU and propelled themselves out of the cavernous hangar. Joanna glanced back to see several Skedar climbing out of the airlock and swimming towards a nearby shuttle. "Company!" she cried.   
  
It was a desperate race to their parked saucer. Trent's fuel quickly burned away, and their oxygen was faring no better. Finally, they pulled to a stop at the saucer. The Skedar shuttle streaked by silently overhead, and Trent once again brought his Magnum to bear. He aimed for a second...BANG! The recoil threw him back a little, but the bullet pierced the bulkhead of the shuttle. A stream of air gushed out of it, interjected by the Skedar being sucked through it one by one.  
  
Joanna checked her watch. "Thirty seconds!" she exclaimed, referring to the package. They quickly piled into the saucer and Trent really pounded the throttle...or the Maian equivalent. They were three hundred miles away when the package timer reached zero. The blast instantly shattered the rock into millions of pieces, none larger than a playing card.   
  
~~~  
  
"...And so, once again, the Carrington Institute, in a joint effort with our Maian allies, has rendered another Skedar plot to a halt."  
  
Carrington turned off the television and turned to Dark and Easton. "You agents did good work. Grimshaw is decoding the information you managed to get. Agents, you managed to push back whatever the Skedar are planning this time."   
  
Carrington stood and walked to the window. "However, the Skedar are planning something big. They haven't done something this big so soon in years."  
  
Joanna leaned forward. "What do you mean by that, Daniel? We've only known about the Skedar for a year."  
  
"Err...nothing, Joanna. I meant in terms of the Maians' experience with them."  
  
Joanna nodded and leaned back. There still seemed to be something suspicious of Daniel's manner, though.  
  
~~~  
  
The asteroid belt.  
  
An enormous shadow can be seen in the distance, blocking out all the stars.  
  
It is roughly as big as a Star Destroyer, one of the ships from Star Wars.  
  
It is a Skedar fuel shipper. Forty-five percent of the whole ship is devoted to a tough hull. If a single ounce of the fuel were to ignite, it would be equivalent to a hundred billion gigaton blast. That would be enough to ignite a new star.   
  
The ship pulled to a halt near a field of debris where one of the asteroids had been days before. "This base has been demolished," one of the bridge technicians growled.  
  
"There are still plenty more out there," responded the ship's commander.  
  
The ship sailed off into the asteroid field, towards the promised other bases. 


	3. Chapter Three

Joanna and Trent were facing the wall in the firing range. Foster came on the intercom. "Ready and…go!" Both agents turned and fired away at the targets. So that they could be tested on equal footing, Trent had a Falcon rather than his custom Magnum. The agents quickly emptied both their guns. "Well done. Dark 8, Easton 7." Joanna patted Trent's arm, a fake sorrowful expression on her face. "Don't worry, Trent. Someday, you'll be as good as me." Trent grunted, and tried to prevent his scowl from bending into a smirk. They stepped out of the firing range. Carrington's voice entered their earpieces. "Dark, Easton, report to Hacker Central." They jogged to the elevator.  
  
Once there, Carrington invited them to have a seat. A screen had been set up at one end of the room, and chairs were at the opposite end. Trent and Joanna took a seat. "Do we get popcorn?" Trent quipped. "Quiet. Grimshaw's about to show us what he found," Carrington snapped.   
  
Grimshaw stood next to the computer projector. He began typing into his keyboard. Suddenly, a blueprint of the asteroid Ceres flashed upon the screen. It was obviously of Skedar design, and included the base that Joanna and Trent had destroyed. The base was further extended than the one the agents had explored though, with a mysterious conical shape taking up one end.  
  
"This is what the Skedar appeared to have been doing," Grimshaw began. "Unless my translation is off, that's a rocket engine out the back. The question is, why the hell would the Skedar want a rocket engine on an asteroid?"  
  
Something in the back of Trent's mind tickled him. When Trent tried to think of what stimulated his brain, he came up with a blank.  
  
"We believe that the Skedar may have been trying to mine the asteroid field for some reason, and Celes was to be a base. But that doesn't explain their hostile action. Besides, Maian astrology maps show that the Skedar have an asteroid belt of their own. So that theory is garbage."  
  
"Of course, there is one sinister alternative…"  
  
Grimshaw didn't finish his sentence. Trent leaped up. "Earth bombardment!"  
  
Grimshaw was astonished. "How did you know?"  
  
Trent quickly recounted how he knew. "I, ah, used to read lots of science fiction."  
  
Grimshaw snorted. "Yeah. Star Wars wasn't so entertaining when planetary destruction technology really was discovered."  
  
~~~  
  
A week later.  
  
The Skedar fuel shipper in the asteroid field is nearly empty. Simultaneously, all the Skedar in the area began preparations.  
  
One by one, bright pinpricks of light began to emanate from the asteroids. Soon, locomotion of the dots of illumination became apparent. Nearly all the asteroids in the belt had begun their journey towards the third planet.  
  
~~~  
  
Joanna and Trent pressed their open lips together in a passionate kiss. "Mmm..." Joanna moaned. Trent's hand gripped her breast, then slid down her pants...  
  
The insistent ringing of the phone woke Joanna from the pleasant dream. She fumbled for the ringing device and held it up to her ear. "Joanna Dark, savior of Earth, at your service," she responded blearily. "Joanna, this is Carrington. We have an urgent mission, Level One Priority." Joanna immediately snapped out of her dullness.  
  
~~~  
  
Joanna and Trent rush aboard the shuttlecraft with barely a moment to grab their sidearms. It lifts off and rockets to the west. Carrington begins a radio briefing almost immediately. "Daniel, what's the mission?" Joanna inquired. Carrington's strained voice shot back quickly. "This is one of the most vital missions I have assigned you upon, Perfect Dark. In Switzerland, a researcher was experimenting with the human genome, when he discovered a method which allowed him to manipulate it at his will."  
  
Joanna's mouth dropped. "Nanotechnology!"  
  
"That's right, Joanna. Shortly before he was to publish his findings, he was seized by a strike team and sped far away. His lab was bombed. We were able to track him to a compound in Mongolia. It's heavily guarded, so we're dropping you a few miles away. Good luck, Perfect Dark and Judas Janus." Trent's callsign had been derived from the fact that he had nearly Judased the human race, but Janused back to the good guys when he found out the truth.   
  
They held tight for several hours as they crossed the Pacific, and finally the Asian mainland. Looking out the window, Trent saw the Chinese Monorail System, the first widespread use of superconductors on the planet. "China's starting to go neck-and-neck in the race with America," Trent mused. "Race for what?" Joanna inquired back. Trent shrugged.   
  
They soon arrived at their dropoff point. As the jumpship soared off into the distance, Joanna gave Trent the once-over. "Trent, I still think you look ridiculous in that thing." Trent still liked to wear his red suit, a duplicate of the one that Mr. Blonde had shredded last year in Alaska. "You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good." "Oh Trent, stop it with the horrible movie quotes," Joanna laughed. Their banter before any mission helped loosen them up.   
  
Fortunately, Carrington was thoughtful enough to leave a hoverbike as well. They mounted and sped off, with Joanna driving. Soon, they reached a small hill which shielded them from a large drone gun about as tall as a guard tower. "I've got a plan," Joanna said. She whispered the details to Trent, who grinned in approval. Both agents whipped out their Data Uplinks. Trent plugged his into the hoverbike for a moment, reprogramming it quickly. A moment after he pulled it out, it went roaring off, going in a broad circle.   
  
The sentry gun tracked it, firing away. Meanwhile, Joanna jogged up to the sentry gun, searching for a port. Smacking her head, she suddenly remembered that the Data Uplink didn't need a port. She reprogrammed the sentry gun to fire at the compound guards. At this point, several guards came running up because of the disturbance. The turret swirled and gunned them down. The agents jogged to the dead bodies. Joanna plucked a keycard from one. Trent plucked a CMP 200 from another. "What about your Magnum, Trent?" Joanna teased. "I'm not taking any chances. There's probably a lot of guards in here, and I want to make sure that I'm the guy doing all the killing." 


	4. Chapter Four

Deep inside the compound, two men stood outside the cell of the researcher. One of the men was General Fuji Ushima, Commander of Naval Forces for Japan. His associate was Artemis Khan, a half-English half-Mongolian aristocrat.   
  
"You have to talk sometime, Doctor," said Khan.  
  
"Sooner or later, we will get through to you," said Ushima.  
  
The occupant of the cell remained silent.  
  
Ushima's radio crackled. "Yes?" "We have detected intruders, sir." "We'll be down in a minute." Ushima and Khan left the room.  
  
"Please…hurry, Agent Dark," the prisoner barely whispered into the darkness.  
  
~~~  
  
It had turned into a contest of How Many Guards Can You Mow Down.  
  
Trent and Joanna had advanced further into the facility, killing guard after guard after guard. Whenever they dispatched one, two more seemed to pop up in his place. "Are we fighting guards, or brooms?" Trent quipped, remembering an old Disney cartoon. Soon, the flow died down and they reached the main barracks.  
  
~~~  
  
Ushima and Khan were in the surveillance room. "Hell. It's them," Ushima muttered. "Who?" Khan asked. "The ones from the Institute! The agents!" Khan nodded, remembering. "Let's get the hell out of here," he agreed. They began to run towards the elevator. "What about…?" Khan began to ask. "No time! They said she wasn't to be underestimated." Khan shrugged, and got into the elevator with his associate. "Our surprise should take care of both our problems, anyway," Ushima said as the elevator doors closed.  
  
~~~  
  
Joanna and Trent found the main barracks mysteriously deserted. They found a map mounted on the wall and proceeded to the detention center on the second floor.  
  
Joanna went into the dark room first. There was a cell in the middle. She could see nobody inside. "Is anybody there?" she whispered. Joanna tried to recall the name of the researcher, but Carrington seemed to have forgotten to tell her.  
  
"Yes! I'm here! Good to see you again, Agent Dark."  
  
Joanna's mouth fell open in shock. "Dr. Carroll?"  
  
The AI entity rose from the bench in the cell. Its chassis was a carbon copy of the one developed for him by the dataDyne corporation, except it had various designs and logos that the sentient program had seen and liked.  
  
"How in the world did you…" Joanna began.  
  
"No time for that now, my dear. We must flee quickly!"  
  
Joanna nodded and grabbed Dr. Carroll. He folded up.   
  
As they reached the elevator, the sound of a hovership's engines reached their ears. It would lift off at any moment. "That might be the base commanders! We've got to catch them!" shouted Joanna as she and Trent entered the elevator. "What if it's some kind of trap?" Trent asked. Joanna thrusted Dr. Carroll towards him and hit the button for the third floor. "Then take him back to the Institute." Trent nodded, and watched as Joanna stepped out onto the upper level of the facility.  
  
Joanna let the elevator close behind her, and listened to it go back down. She jogged around the corner, looking for the roof access doors. She pushed through one set of double doors, then another. Finally, she reached the hoverpad. The hovercraft was already up. It fired a salvo of rockets at Joanna. An area similar to the one she had just left was on the opposite end of the pad. Joanna dashed towards it as the rockets demolished most of her side of the pad. She disappeared into the other area. Fortunately, there was no second salvo of rockets.   
  
Joanna peered through a crack in the door. The hovercraft roared off. She turned and proceeded to make her way to the elevator bank on this side of the building.   
  
Two Blondes flanked the elevator. Joanna drew her Falcon. They did not move a single millimeter. Joanna started to get a nervous feeling. Then, the elevator doors opened, and the last person Joanna expected walked through the doors.  
  
It was Cassandra DeVries.  
  
"Cassandra?" Joanna asked incredulously.   
  
"Well, well, young lady. I'm not as dead as you thought I was." She removed a modified RC-P120 she had been holding behind her. "But you shall be."  
  
Joanna sneered. "We parted on such good terms, Cassandra. Why do this?"  
  
Cassandra returned the sneer. "You keep stealing my sapient!"  
  
Cassandra pulled the trigger and bullets began to rain out. Joanna cartwheeled behind the corner, and the stream of bullets followed her, chewing through the tough concrete like rotten meat.  
  
Joanna could tell by the sound of the gunfire that it was an altered form of the CI-originated weapon. Foster had explained that he could have rigged the firearm to shoot bullets at a much higher velocity, thus letting them chew through concrete or take out large groups at a distance. Clearly, Cassandra figured this confrontation would be swift and decisive, and she wouldn't need the cloaking feature. Joanna kept running, as the bullets burst through the wall. The gunfire stopped, and Joanna swiveled, Falcon in hand, ready to take Cassandra out.  
  
As Joanna swung back around the corner, she began to fire. The bursts of colored energy like an aura around Cassandra's body revealed she had a shield. Also, that she was swinging the gun up again was a clear signal she had reloaded all too quickly. Joanna also took in that Cassandra was holding it with one arm. "Strange," Joanna thought. "With that gun, you need both hands, or the recoil will snap your arm clean off." Joanna had already fired off six rounds by the time the thought ran through her head. She quickly dived for cover behind the corner again as she popped off the last two from her clip. She had glimpsed a light orange glow from the shield, meaning it was at less than 50% power.  
  
Joanna fluidly snapped out the old clip from her Falcon and slammed the new one back in. This time, Cassandra held fire, waiting for Joanna to come out.   
  
She didn't wait long.  
  
Joanna almost shrieked as Cassandra rounded the corner, the same look on her face. That look of...nonemotion.   
  
"Say your prayers, Agent Dark," Cassandra said menacingly.  
  
"Cassandra, do you have a necklace?" Joanna asked.  
  
"What? No!" Cassandra's voice was perplexed.   
  
"Good." Joanna suddenly did a spin-kick, knocking the RC-P120 out of Cassandra's hands and caught it midair. "Because I don't need to keep you alive if there's no necklace keyed to your life." She squeezed the trigger. The bullets immediately tore the rest of the shield to pieces, and knocked Cassandra back to the wall with their force.   
  
Joanna crept forward after dropping the empty gun. What the hell?  
  
Rather than the digestive system, wires and shattered circuitry hung out of the gaping hole in Cassandra's chest. "A sim!" Joanna exclaimed. She flipped over the robot and pulled up the hair. "Darksim Model #3178 custom. Copyright dataDyne, Inc.," read the logo. Joanna went back to the elevator guarded by the inert Blondes. They turned out to be actual statues. She was about to press the button when she noticed the elevator had descended sometime during the fight, and was now coming back up. "Hell," said Joanna. 


	5. Chapter Five

The elevator doors opened. Out stepped three Cassandras, in a search and destroy pattern. They searched; they found no Joanna in the immediate room.  
  
That was because Joanna was precariously arched on the heads of the Blonde statues. She waited until the third Darksim passed beyond the statues, and she performed an incredible acrobatic stunt which would have made her the envy of any acrobat alive.   
  
Joanna leapt up and kicked from the wall. Her left foot gave a terrific kick to the closest DarkSim; her right foot pressed the elevator button. The doors began to close. She shoved off from the DarkSim's head into the elevator, barely passing through the closing doors. The other two Darksims turned and perforated the third with lead, but missed Joanna entirely.   
  
She hit the ground floor button, and wiped her brow. Now the hard stuff was over.  
  
The elevator door opened, and it was all Joanna could do to keep control of her bladder. It was a wide room, with about a hundred Darksim Cassandras in glass boxes. The four boxes nearest her were empty, though. Joanna ran through the room, hoping none awoke.  
  
None did.   
  
She burst out of the building, filled with relief to have escaped the deathtrap. Trent soared up on the hoverbike, Dr. Carroll still under his arm. Joanna jumped on, urging Trent to get the hell out of Dodge. "Ulan Bator's about twenty miles north of here. We'll take a plane back to the Institute," Trent shouted over the wind.  
  
~~~  
  
Khan and Ushima were onboard a private jet en route to Tokyo. They were both talking on the phone.  
  
"You failed?" asked Mr. X, as Khan and Ushima called the man. He employed them.  
  
"Yes, sir. We failed. We beg your forgiveness." They both groveled for several moments.  
  
"Enough! I gave you explicit orders to make sure she was dead, and that you were to escape with Dr. Carroll. You did neither!"  
  
Ushima offered explanations. "Sir, you yourself told us she was incredibly dangerous. Our combat skills combined do not come close to matching hers. If we had tried to retrieve the doctor, we would have been subdued. Even the DarkSims were clearly not as skilled as her. Believe me, we tried our best."  
  
Mr. X sighed. "I'll give you one more chance. Just make sure that the girl is out of our way, one way or the other."  
  
The two men thanked him, but he had already hung up.  
  
~~~  
  
Trent and Joanna had taken a private charter. Joanna began to interrogate Dr. Carroll.  
  
"How did you survive?" she began.  
  
"Well, it was quite simple, really. Grimshaw's firewalls didn't stand a chance against a certain determined AI. The second he put my backup disk on his computer, I was streaking through the Internet at the speed of light. Within a half-hour I was communicating with scientists in Switzerland. I had them build myself a second 'body'. I thought the chances of my first self surviving would be rather slim, so it turned out my preparations were in luck."  
  
Joanna fired off the next question. "Why didn't you ever try to contact me?"  
  
"Oh, but I did try, Joanna. Many times. I was going to contact you again upon the eve of my discovery…"  
  
"Nanotechnology."  
  
"But the Institute's computers wouldn't let me in. Shortly after, I was captured."  
  
Joanna mused on that. Usually, the Institute's computers - apart from ones like in the weapons research division - were free for public perusal on the internet. Only Grimshaw, Foster, and Carrington could bar outside access.  
  
~~~  
  
The dropship had picked them up when they landed at the airport. As they arrived at the Institute, Carrington welcomed them into the hangar.  
  
"Well done, Joanna, Trent. Dr. Carroll?" Carrington was surprised at the return of the AI.   
  
"Yes, Mr. Carrington, I'm alive," replied the little robot.  
  
Carrington nodded. "That's spectacular!" He turned to Trent and Joanna. "I'm sorry we couldn't give you any intel on the base, but we had to hurry to rescue you."  
  
Dr. Carroll narrowed his eyes. "He's lying."  
  
Joanna's eyes darted from Dr. Carroll to Carrington, and back again. "What do you mean?" she finally asked.  
  
"His heart's racing. High pulse indicates fraudulence."  
  
"That's preposterous!" Carrington exclaimed.  
  
"You WANTED Joanna to die on this mission!" Dr. Carroll shouted back.  
  
"I will not listen to this! Take the sapient into custody!" roared Carrington.  
  
Joanna looked at Carrington's face. It was a deep angry red. "Trent, quickly!"  
  
She seized Dr. Carroll and ran for the motor pool, with Trent following closely. Institute guards turned to Carrington for instructions. "After them!" he shouted.  
  
Joanna heard the footsteps of her pursuers. "Sorry, guys," she whispered, half to herself. She typed for a few seconds at a terminal, then ducked around a corner with Trent. The guards entered the hallway right after, only to duck back around their corner when the sentry gun began to fire at them.   
  
Joanna and Trent reached the motor pool. Jonathan Dark - no relation - stood there, a Magnum pointed at the two.  
  
"I can't let you leave the Institute," Jonathan said dejectedly.   
  
"Sorry, Jonathan, but I must."  
  
Jonathan fired. Joanna, anticipating he would, fell back and kicked her leg up, knocking the bullet into an upward trajectory. From her position sitting on the floor, she fired two quick shots, both hitting Jonathan in the kneecaps. "Let's go!" she shouted. They ran past a moaning Jonathan, hopped into a Jeep and barreled through the door.   
  
Carrington and several guards arrived seconds later, huffing and puffing. They watched the Jeep disappear into the distance. "DAMNIT!" Carrington shouted, banging his fist against the wall. 


	6. Chapter Six

A week had passed.  
  
They had ditched the Jeep off of a cliff and hitched a ride to Los Angeles. It was only about seventy miles away, since the Institute was located on the Pacific side of the Rockies..   
  
Joanna was in the hotel room she and Trent had rented, with Dr. Carroll at her side. The night before, Joanna had recalled something Carrington had let slip about the Skedar having acted this way before. It implied that the Skedar had operated on Earth previously. Trent had said he'd contact some people he kept in touch with in the NSA and check out if the Skedar had actually contacted man before.  
  
Trent came up to the table now, a moderately sized file in his hand. A strange look was on his face.  
  
"We may have a lead," he began.  
  
"Oh good. What is it?" Joanna asked.  
  
"Well, in the 1980s, when Carrington first made contact with the Maians, there was more to the story than Carrington told us."  
  
"What do you mean?" Joanna asked.  
  
"Well, apparently Mr. Blonde and a force of Skedar were attempting to assassinate Carrington, so that first contact never took place."  
  
"Well, hell. At least we know they failed."  
  
"The aliens nearly did get him, though. It was only through the actions of one man which saved Carrington's life, and the first contact."  
  
Trent handed the file over to Joanna. Her mouth fell open in surprise. The name of the file read 'Dark, Captain Raymond: USMC'.   
  
"Dad?"  
  
~~~  
  
They reached the Happier Days Rest Home before sunset. Joanna had purchased some fresh-baked cookies for her father -- his favorite. They stopped briefly at the receptionist's for clearance, and then proceeded to her father's room.  
  
"Hi, dad," she began.  
  
"Jo! Haven't seen you in months. Too busy saving the world for some time with your pop?" he asked, a smile on his face and a glint in his eye.   
  
"Sorry, dad. I brought you your favorite!" She handed the box to him.   
  
"Ooh! Cookies!" He seized the box from her and began eating them. He offered one to Joanna -- she politely accepted -- and then to Trent, who declined. "Say, I'm afraid we haven't been introduced."  
  
"Dad, this is Trent Easton, my partner. I told you about him, remember?"   
  
"Ah, of course! It's good to finally meet the wonderful man my daugher has been telling me about for so long. So, have you set a date yet?"  
  
"Pardon?" Trent asked.  
  
"For the wedding! I'm not getting any older, and I'd like to walk Jo down the aisle while I'm still able to walk."  
  
"We're not getting married, dad," Joanna said, her face blushing heavily.  
  
"Ah, living in sin, huh?" He smiled again and nudged his daughter.   
  
"So, what really brings you here?"  
  
"Tell us about the Skedar during the 80s," she asked.  
  
"Oh. So, you found out about that, did you?" The look on the senior Dark's face grew distant. "Well, the way it all started out was..."  
  
~~~  
  
It took him several hours to tell the tale. It was rather interesting, but ultimately helped Joanna and Trent out very little.  
  
"Thank you very much for telling us that story, Dad. Trent and I have to be going now. We're sort of...on the run."  
  
"Carrington doesn't want you two to elope, eh? Heh! Well, I don't want to hold you two kids down. Go on. Love you, Jo. Bye, Trent."  
  
They stepped out of his room waving. Trent began chuckling. "Oh, Joanna, I totally want to marry you," he teased.  
  
"Give me a kiss, big boy," she replied, turning her head and puckering up.  
  
They slowed. Trent began to lose his relaxed demeanor. "I just may." He turned towards Joanna as well. They were unsure if they were still joking or not.   
  
They didn't have time to decide, since the power suddenly cut off. Suddenly, a flashbang detonated twenty feet away from them.  
  
The rest home was under attack. 


End file.
